About

Tales of the Neon Sea : retro-styled pixel-art adventure

NZ$ 22,248

pledged of NZ$ 14,793 goal

845

backers

Tales of the Neon Sea is a retro-styled pixel-art adventure, developed by Palm Pioneer and published by Zodiac Interactive.

Set in a fully realized cyberpunk cityscape where humans and robots contend with escalating tensions and mutual distrust, you take on the role of a hard-boiled detective using your wits and puzzle-solving skills to determine the course of this unique tale.

Welcome to a vibrant future world of intrigue and suspicion, where you must journey through the unknown as you work to uncover the truth.

Genre：adventure/puzzle-solving

Platform: PC (Windows only) + Consoles

Game length: 3-5 hours Release

Date: Coming soon!

In the near future, humans and sentient AI robots rely on each other for survival despite growing tensions and unease. Our protagonist, formerly a veteran police detective but now retired following years of frustration and disillusionment, spends his days intoxicated while accepting random jobs as a private investigator to make ends meet. He exists within the neon sea of an immense city, its blinding artificial lights unable to hide the shadow of greed and lust that threatens to engulf it at any moment.

This drunken cycle is broken when our hero becomes entangled in a missing person's case, one which holds the key to tracking down a monstrous killer who long ago escaped justice. Unlock your memories, decode the truth, and resist drowning in the wave of conspiracy that grips the city!

Stunningly detailed retro-styled pixel-art coupled with modern atmospheric lighting and visual effects bring this unique cyberpunk world to life, while evocative music and sound design build suspense and mystery every step of the way.

As an adventure game built on mystery and intrigue, the player will encounter various puzzles interspersed throughout the story. These have been designed to test observation and reasoning skills, while also being logical and fun. The puzzles appear organically and help to flesh out the world while also keeping gameplay fresh and interesting.

The story itself has been written and designed to ensure that players care about the characters and the world they exist in. Through this cinematic storytelling comes the motivation to move forward and the constant desire to reach the next twist or plot point.

Similar to other side-scrollers, players can use a control pad or mouse & keyboard to determine movement, dialogue, and interaction between characters in each scene.

Gameplay

Our protagonist is a very talented detective. He uses powers of observation, reasoning, and deduction to solve puzzles and reveal the mysteries of cases one after another by exploring the scene, analyzing objects, and interrogating witnesses.

In addition, at various points in the game you can take control of his special “assistant” - William the black cat. William can travel deeper into areas our detective can’t reach, often proving decisive in identifying and retrieving key evidence!

Master Detective

The player needs to search for hidden clues and physical evidence from the perspective of a detective, obtain secrets from the mouths of key individuals, make inferences, and draw conclusions about who is the criminal, their motives and techniques.

Investigation

Item

Maze Explorer

Many scenes within the game are constructed like a maze, requiring the player to make use of everything around them to escape and move on to the next section.

The goal is to create interesting and logical side-scrolling labyrinths.

Below is an early design example (we don’t want to spoil sections of the finished game!)

There will also be some independent puzzles in the game interspersed with each stage, so in this way the puzzles can be more diverse.

The game is now more than 50% complete. Several test versions already exist and have been trialed by a small sample group of players for feedback.

The overall framework and flow of the game stages has been finalized.

The main game systems have been completed.

The artistic style of the game has been fine-tuned, and the main scene assets have also been completed.

The second offline test has been completed.

We have already exhibited our game at PAX East and have received coverage from Rock Paper Shotgun, and VentureBeat. Thanks to the support of players like you, the main systems and the design of the mechanics are finished. What remains is to finalize the content and refine the experience.

PAX East

Mail: info@zodiacinteractive.com

Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCTrA8ewQ5QqRmOELJQXEAOQ

Twitter: @ZdcInteractive

Discord link:discord.gg/MWbwZSY

Through crowdfunding we hope to acquire a budget to help with improving the performance of the game and completing the later development stages on time. This will also us to complete post-production of music sound effects, and produce physical souvenirs for supporters. This will also allow us to begin work on multi-platform versions of the game.

Additionally, we hope that through crowdfunding more players will learn about us and our games, and with your support and recognition we can make Tales of the Neon Sea as good as it can be!

Currently, we are working on:

- Configuration of the stages in the game

- Development of secondary systems

- Completion of remaining scene resources

- The production of special actions of the protagonist

- Production of music and sound effects - Game debugging

An independent game development team consisting of 11 members, we have produced 8 games since 2013. "Fairy in Wonderland" and "Xnooker" were recommended on the App Store, and this positive response from Apple gave us the belief to continue down the road of indie development.

All of our previous games were mobile titles, however after careful thought and consideration we have decided to follow our passion and transition to PC and console development. Using all the experience we gained up to this point, we are now ready to make the jump to a larger and more involving experience – one that is close to our hearts. This is Tales of the Neon Sea!

During the last number of months, we have collected a lot of valuable comments and feedback from many players - and we have received a lot of love and support. Following much research and preparation, we believe Kickstarter is the right move to help boost our project over the finish line. Thank you to everyone who chooses to be a part of this project, we are working as hard as possible to create a unique and special experience.

Risks and challenges

As the official Tales of the Neon Sea Kickstarter campaign, we are proud and excited to show you what we have been working on. With your support, we are determined to create the best game we can, and deliver the experience we all want to play!

Our motivation is to create a fascinating cyberpunk world that lives in our dreams.

We’ve done a lot of pre-production work to avoid risks where possible, and we will make any effort to turn our vision into reality.

Once our project is funded we will dedicate all our energy into creating the best game we can. We’re confident we have the ability and skill to complete the task. Together, let’s bring this unique cyberpunk experience to life!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge NZ$ 293 or more
About $198

The Shadow of Mist

Work with our team to design a billboard (outdoor scene) or poster (indoor scene) displayed at a prominent location in the game. Custom content can be images or text, and we will communicate with you as soon as the project is funded, in order of backers received.